Parkland Shooting Survivor Calls Teacher 'Coward' For Locking Students Out Of Classroom During Attack

A survivor from the school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School is accusing a teacher of locking him and several other students out of a classroom during the attacks.

Josh Gallagher, who says he is a junior at the school in Parkland Florida, posted his story on Twitter detailing the disturbing event and accusing math teacher Jim Gard of locking him and multiple other students out of the classroom.

Gallagher says he was in Gard’s math class when the fire alarm went off. When Gard and other students filed out of the room for the drill, they realized that the shooting was taking place.

"I walk to the top of the staircase and we heard shots go off," Gallagher wrote. "At this point, we all ducked and shock kicked in for half a second of what is happening."

When the students ran back to Gard’s classroom, Gallagher said they were not let in.

“In an almost instant rush, me and my fellow classmates, as well as others, rushed back to our classroom," he wrote. "As we made it to the door we found out the door was locked. Which then left me and 15 other students in the hallways ducking as the screams of classmates and gunshots took over the noise around me."

The junior said he and the other students were terrified and were out in the hallway for four minutes. Gallagher said he called his father, a first responder, to tell him that he loved him while he and the students looked for a place to hide. After a few minutes, a teacher opened the door.

"As I was on the phone with him as he tried to calm me down, a teacher I never seen before opened [sic] the door for me and 14 other classmates to flee danger. When I got into the classroom I told my dad I loved him, he then said it back to me and he hung up because he was a first responder running into the freshmen building,” Gallagher wrote.

Gallagher accused Gard of being a “coward” and for being “selfish.” He said Gard ran back to his classroom without making sure all of his students were accounted for and took advantage of the situation by reaching out to news stations to talk about the shooting.

"Hours and days after the shooting I came to found out ... Jim Gard actually ran back into the classroom without turning around and locked his door," Gallagher wrote. "He left 75 percent of his students out in the hallway to be slaughtered. How can a man such as him be viewed as a hero in the media?”

Other students who have said they were also locked out of Gard’s classroom stand by Gallagher’s account of being locked out of the classroom.

“As one of the kids left in the hallway, I want people to understand how terrifying and defenseless I personally felt. The person I had to rely on left us to die and that’s not okay,” tweeted Connor Dietrich.

Gard did admit to the Sun-Sentinelthat he didn’t let the students in because of protocol.

“I looked back down the hall and no one was around—no one,” Gard said. “You have to close the door. That’s protocol. We have no choice. ... I told the kids we can’t let anyone in,” he said. “We had no idea if it was a drill or not. By the time I walked over to the door, the banging had stopped. I didn’t hear any yelling. If there were 13 kids outside the door screaming and banging, I would have heard them.”

There were 17 students that were killed on February 14 when Nikolas Cruz, a former student at the high school, opened fire.